Embodiments of the present disclosure relate in general to processing signals for transmission, and more specifically to circuits, systems and methodologies for efficiently and effectively improving a conversion gain of mixer circuitry used in the wireless transmission and/or reception of information signals.
In general, commutating circuits such as mixers and modulators enable frequency conversion for signal processing at a different frequency from the original signal frequency. One useful example of commutating circuits is a radio frequency (RF) mixer popularly used in a variety of radio-frequency/microwave applications, including military radar, cellular base stations, and the like. When sending information wirelessly through air, a mixer up-converts the signals to a radio frequency, ranging from several hundred MHz to several hundred GHz, before being sent, and down-converts from the radio frequency to intermediate frequency (IF) upon receipt. A RF mixer is a three-port passive or active device, which has IF or RF input, LO input, and RF or IF output.